These are the emotional triggers that will be used in a series of hard hitting television ads to encourage Australia’s three million smokers to stop.

But they won’t be seen around the nation — except in this paper, today — unless the government stumps up $50 million a year in funding.

An ad that shows a man rolling a cigarette from sticky body parts with the message “every cigarette rots you from the inside out”, another showing a man smoking a cigarette that grows into a cancerous tumour every puff he takes could be purchased from the UK for immediate use. Anti-smoking campaigners are also eyeing up a US ad initiative.

Another video of a man who needs help walking after being disabled by a stroke thanks to tobacco has been shown only in Victoria but could be aired around the country for the first time.

New funding would also allow a battery of older hard hitting horror ads that have been shown in some states to be rolled out nationwide. A man in a coffin, a woman with a tracheotomy and another with a stoma bag as a result of diseases caused by smoking feature in these ads by Quit Victoria.

Stills from UK anti-smoking campaign of the type to be rolled out in Australia if funding is available. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

“Fear is the primal emotion and the most important in getting people to contemplate giving up smoking,” says Sarah Durkin a researcher from the Centre for Behavioural research and cancer.

Smokers exposed to advertisements that evoke fear were twice as likely to make a quit smoking attempt, she said.

“These emotions are the drivers that jolt people out of an entrenched habit,” says veteran anti-tobacco campaigner and Public Health Association chief Terry Slevin.

“You’ve got 30 seconds to get people’s attention in their busy lives and you are talking about trying to shift an addictive behaviour, an entrenched behaviour,” says Mr Slevin who started working on anti-smoking campaigns in 1984.

Australia’s spectacular success in halving the smoking rate has ground to a halt since the federal government cut spending on mass media advertisements urging people to quit in 2012.

News Corp in partnership with the Heart Foundation and with the support of Quit, and the Australian Medical Association is calling for an investment of $200 million ($50 million a year for four years) to reinstate and maintain a national tobacco campaign.

This investment equates to only a tiny fraction (less than one-third of one per cent) of the $48.6 billion in revenue from tobacco excise and customs duty that the Government expects to receive over the next three financial years.

The money should be invested as follows:

- $25m a year for a television-led national tobacco campaign, targeting adult tobacco users in all states and territories.

- $10m a year for a National Cessation Strategy to help smokers quit. This would include writing national clinical guidelines on smoking cessation, and the embedding of quit programs into health services, as well as a national Quitline™ as a referral, training and behavioural support provider.

- $15m a year to targeted programs to help people experiencing the highest levels of disadvantage.

One of the ads shows a man rolling a cigarette from sticky body parts. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

All states and territories agreed for the first time to work with the Commonwealth on a nationally co-ordinated approach on anti-tobacco advertising at a COAG meeting late last week.

A spokeswoman for Health Minister Greg Hunt said the Government will make further announcements in this space shortly and said there had been investment in anti-smoking campaigns since 2012.

Smokers exposed to advertisements that evoke fear were twice as likely to make a quit smoking attempt, one expert said. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

“Campaign advertising has been placed on audience-specific and mainstream channels including television, radio, print, out-of-home and digital channels since 2012.”

Labor, which pledged to spend $20 million on anti-tobacco advertising in 2016 is supporting the push and health spokeswoman Catherine King says it has already “stood up to Big Tobacco” through its plain packaging legislation.

“We need more major, hard-hitting media campaigns. They are one of the most effective weapons in our arsenal,” she said.

Labor’s health spokeswoman Catherine King said it had already “stood up to Big Tobacco” through its plain packaging legislation. Picture: Alan PrykeSource:Supplied

The Heart Foundation says when people quit smoking, there are both immediate and long-term health benefits.

After one year, the risk of a heart attack or stroke is reduced by half, and in 5 to 15 years the risk of stroke and coronary heart disease returns to that of people who have never smoked.

Adjunct Professor John Kelly, Group CEO, Heart Foundation says its very disturbing that one in two smokers don’t know it causes heart disease “when we know absolutely that smoking is major risk factor for heart disease, and that smokers are four times more likely to die from heart disease than nonsmokers”.

“A national tobacco campaign would help reverse this worrying lack of awareness and save lives,” he said.

Stills from a US campaign showing smoking damage. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

Quit estimates a new national advertising campaign has the potential to prevent 55,000 deaths and result in 323,000 life-years gained while delivering $740.6 million in healthcare savings over the next 20 years.

Terry Slevin says the advertisements are needed because smokers have established defence mechanisms in their own mind to justify continuing to smoke and campaigns have to be hard hitting to break through that barrier, he said.

You’ve got to focus on things that are important to them like their children, their family and take them on a journey to challenge their smoking behaviour, says Slevin.

Sarah Durkin who studies the effectiveness of anti-tobacco advertising says the key to a successful campaign is getting smokers to understand what it’s like to live day to day with the diseases smoking causes.

To cut through the advertisements have got to scare people in a visceral way.

“Fear is an emotion that lays down memory, it’s sticky. We want to evoke fear every time someone picks up a cigarette so that they replay that image in their head,” she said.

SMOKING LINKED TO HEART DISEASE

Half of all smokers surveyed don’t know that smoking increases their risk of heart disease, Australia’s single biggest killer, according to research by the Heart Foundation.

Yet tobacco use, and second-hand smoke exposure, cause thousands of deaths from cardiovascular disease every year — contributing to approximately 18,800 deaths in 2011 and 17 per cent of all such deaths in 2017.

The ignorance highlighted in the foundation’s 2018 Heart Watch survey goes further, with four in five smokers saying they do not believe quitting smoking lowers their risk of heart disease.

Health groups say the widespread ignorance among smokers about the link between smoking and heart disease demonstrates the need for a major national anti-smoking advertising campaign.

While many understand the risk of tobacco-related cancer, the Heart Foundation says smoking is as bad for your heart as it is for your lungs; as it damages the lining of your arteries, resulting in build ups of fatty deposits, which narrow the arteries.

Research by the Heart Foundation revealed smokers don’t know that smoking increases their risk of heart disease, Australia’s single biggest killer. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

Smoking also increases the stiffness of the blood vessels, making it harder for them to expand and contract as needed and more likely to split. These changes to the arteries can cause a heart attack, stroke or angina (chest pain).

Smokers are three times more likely to suffer sudden cardiac death than nonsmokers. Even smoking between 1 and 4 cigarettes a day dramatically increases the risk of dying of heart disease or developing a cardiovascular condition that significantly reduces quality of life.

Nicotine from smoking results in an almost immediate rise in heart rate and blood pressure, carbon monoxide in cigarettes reduces the oxygen levels of your blood and your heart must work harder to pump blood around your body.

Stills from a US campaign showing smoking damage. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

Blood clotting is more likely to occur in smokers, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Tobacco users can expect to die on average 10 years earlier than if they had never smoked.

Exposure to second-hand smoke increases the risk of heart disease by around 30%.

Around half of all smokers have tried to quit the addictive habit but only one in five used the evidence based approach of combining personalised coaching with nicotine replacement therapy.